Brandon Sanderson: There's always another secret project.

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Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Different inspiration:
-There were 10 Heralds, and apparently 9 left, leaving the 10th trapped in some kind of purgatory.
-There is no evidence of Highstorms in the Radiants prehistory era.
-Magic seemed much more widespread then.

Theory:
-The Stormfather who creates the Highstorms is the Herald that was left behind. He's still releasing his magical energy, but in the form of destructive storms that ravage Roshar. The other Heralds stopped giving their magic to the Radiants when they left, so they weren't able to keep surgebinding. The interlude about the people killing in the name of their emperor is an allegory about the Radiants, who abandoned their duty after they realized they were abandoned themselves. Also, this is why only Windrunning still exists - that is the magic of the Herald who became the Storm father

# ¿ Jan 23, 2014 22:44

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 18:02

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Also, there was a bit implied that the Heralds reincarnate against their will, and it's not pleasant. As far as we've seen, the only magical power in the world comes from the Highstorms (even to the point where there are no sprens in Shinovar where they don't have Highstorms), and in the past, the Heralds and Radiants were the ones who had magic. With one Herald left behind on Roshar, and one source of magic left, it seems like there is an association.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2014 23:49

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Eric the Mauve posted:

I think Dalinar will make it, but I wouldn't sell Adolin any life insurance if I were you.

Although that may not happen for another few books yet. Gotta get the Kaladin/Shallan/Adolin love triangle revved up first.

Szeth will probably commit suicide or make some kind of other last-minute face turn. The dude is going crazier and crazier, and isn't holding his Shinese beliefs sacred anymore. His oath to do whatever his master says just because he's holding a special rock is a pretty hard-to-justify belief, especially considering his punishment is to be responsible for all the bad things he does, but have no ability to stop doing them. Kaladin is pretty badass, but he's not going to be a match for Szeth. Then again, maybe Jasnah or Shallan will just soulcast Szeth into a fart on the wind right as he's about to win.

I doubt Szeth's climactic fight will be him and someone else swinging weapons and surge binding at each other, is all I'm saying. It's not an interesting climax to see which imaginary fighter is better. And he really can't win, because if he does, he kills all of the other POV characters.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2014 19:11

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

veekie posted:

He's the most experienced combat trained Surgebinder on site aside from Jasnah I think, but might be hindered by not being empowered by the Oaths, and almost certainly not having fought other Surgebinders before.

I know we're just speculating here, but Szeth is being "controlled" by an oathstone. He may or may not have been empowered by the Radiants' Oaths, but he's definitely done something strange to get where he is, and oaths probably somehow factor in.

# ¿ Jan 28, 2014 05:38

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

treeboy posted:

you're reaching really far here and are completely off base.

This is where I could also point out the Alethi aren't white, they're somewhere between Indian/East Asian in skin color, perhaps even Native American/Mayan. Of the main cast only Shallan is "european" in appearance with pale skin, freckles, and red hair (I get a Eurasian/Russian vibe from Rock). Sanderson does an excellent job of actually creating 'fake' ethnicities that don't really exist on earth (Adolin is blonde with black streaked hair and dark tan skin, and strong sharp features/square jaw)

edit: We also don't know the Parshendi backstory. Only that They're susceptible to control via voidspren due to their close relation to the Cognitive realm, much as Hemalurgic spikes made one susceptible to Ruin. My guess is they were a peaceful race, which included the Dawnsingers who formed the great cities for Men, and then were essentially enslaved by Odium when he became trapped in the Greater Rosharran solar system

With Odium's tendencies, and one of the Diagram chapter prologues, it sounds like the Parshendi weren't necessarily that way from the start, or created by Odium as servants. The prologue referring to the Unmade sounds a lot like it's referring to the Parshendi. Odium's thing seems to be "shattering" stuff into pieces. The Parshendi are incomplete, in that they don't innately have souls, or whatever you want to call most things' spiritual center. They have to bond a spren to be complete, and they mention that they felt betrayed by the spren for bonding with humans when the Parshendi are their original bff's. Spren are seemingly unique to the Roshar/Honor/Cultivation/Odium part of the Cosmere, and they aren't present in places like Shinovar, where the world isn't a rocky, stormswept, crustacean-ridden hellscape.

What I'm speculating at, is that the Parshendi were shattered into physical, cognitive, and spiritual pieces by Odium. Roshar itself seems to be beaten up pretty badly, too. So maybe the spren (including voidspren) are the independent cognitive and spiritual pieces of the other stuff that Odium broke. It's held true for Honor, at least.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2014 19:57

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

NecroMonster posted:

Why would the Heralds, who were given the Honorblades, which are basically piece of Honor be agents of Odium?

My guess is that there is actually something about how the Radiants opperate or get their power that is fundamentally incompatible with the first oath that they all share. Using stormlight is probably somehow destructive, or it's a finite resource.

It could just be that once the Desolation is over, a bunch of magic superheroes decided that they didn't want to stop being in charge. We know the Windrunners walked away from the whole thing, which would fit them actually being, y'know, honorable and not taking advantage.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2014 23:49

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

The thing we don't know about the Recreance is Was the last one the only one? Taln, the loopy Herald (or whatever he is) had a script along the lines of "the Desolation is coming. I know you won't know what I'm talking about [because they wipe everything out so completely that you probably don't even know how to bake bread anymore], but I'm here to help you found the orders of Knights Radiant and survive the war." It sounds straightforward, but the implication is that there have been many Desolations that nuked the world, and the Knights Radiant had to be refounded multiple times.

The implication there is that the KR got disbanded multiple times also. There had to be some kind of Recreance after every Desolation. Was the Recreance that everyone shits their pants over just the last one? Or was it somehow uniquely bad? Or is it just that the previous ones faded from memory?

We still also don't really know what the Heralds are, or the Honorblades, or the Oathpact, or any of these big picture cosmology things that underpin the fantasy elements on Roshar.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2014 19:26

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Compare them to Asimov's Laws of Robotics. One is about how his actions need to be. The other is about how he can't avoid that oath through inaction.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2014 16:24

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Habibi posted:

Aside from any objections I might voice regarding the validity of that comparison, I'll point out that those two tenets - action and preventing inaction - were, under Asimov's system, part of the same rule.

That's kinda splitting hairs? If they were logically equivalent, there wouldn't be two parts to the first law. And apparently Syl hasn't read I, Robot. I'm still going to say the the second oath is essentially My actions will be good. and the third is My inactions won't be evil.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2014 16:56

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

api call girl posted:

It's almost like Brandon's specifically putting out there "hey, themes of reincarnation and renewal definitely figure big into my world and cosmology"

Yeah, Szeth is positioned for a serious face turn. The dude got the poo poo end of the stick by being targeted by the Diagram and made into a weapon. It drove him insane how lovely his life was. If anyone was broken enough to be ready to be a Knight Radiant, it's Szeth. The Skybreakers are righteous assholes, and don't seem very heroic, but are at least "good guys," and it sounds like he's being used as a Skybreaker free agent. He might not end up being a hero, but he'll at least be an anti-hero by the end of the next book.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2014 06:34

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Ithaqua posted:

It's funny because Szeth is the one character who doesn't look Asian. His people have big, round Caucasian eyes.

Pretty sure this is Szeth

# ¿ Apr 14, 2014 19:00

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Related to Dalinar's repeated instruction to Unite them. - He kept assuming different things, like uniting the Alethi, then uniting the humans, and then considering uniting the humans with the parsh. And then a subtext of uniting humans and spren. But when he confronts Odium, did anyone else get the impression that he was supposed to be uniting the splinters of Honor, and that's his real task?

seaborgium posted:

Related to this one, In one of the visions Dalinar kept going back to, the one about the "Final Desolation" he found the 9 blades in a circle and noticed a guy all by himself seeing them as well. He described the guy as looking like he was Shin. I just figured some Shin guy found the blades, realized what they were and brought them back to his local priest/stone shaman/whoever and it got dealt with from there.

I think that's unreliable narrator stuff. The humans not from Roshar, like the lighthouse keeper, are described as looking like Shin. I think they're supposed to just look Anglo- , rather than the East Asian traits of the Alethi, and the Shin are the examples that Rosharans know.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2017 01:46

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Evil Fluffy posted:

My main hope for Stones Unhallowed, whenever it comes out (probably 2020?), is that Sanderson paces the book better. Oathbringer was a good book overall but I'd expected better pacing from Sanderson by now.

I though it was really obvious she was going to suggest Jasnah. The way the argument was going it was clear that the kind of take-no-poo poo leader who also knew how to deal with other countries could only be Jasnah, especially after the way he essay was received early on and the fact that other countries have a lot of respect for her. Sebarial might be smarter than he lets on but he'd still be a god awful leader and most people would just think he's Dalinar's puppet. Nobody who knows anything about her is going to think that of Jasnah.

Plus she's sister and daughter to the two previous kings, and word of her exploits in the Thaylen City battle would've spread among the Alethi like wildfire. No highprince is going to (openly) challenge having a queen who is also a Knight Radiant with her level of power and pretty much every Alethi woman who isn't completely subservient is going to secretly think "hell yes a woman ruler" except Ialai but she has her own problems to deal with after her own forces turned traitor.

Jasnah is awesome, but I'm frustrated that she seems to be sandbagging, big time. Apparently she's sworn the Fourth Ideal already, or at the very least knows where shardplate comes from and how it works. She has been a Radiant longer (apparently much longer) than Kaladin, the poster child for the power of the Radiants, and seems much more powerful. She seems to know a lot about what's going on, in general, while Dalinar and Shallan are struggling to piece together facts from incomplete visions and publicly available books. As far a storytelling goes, it makes a better story to have the POV characters discover things about the world at the same pace as the reader, but c'mon Sanderson, give us some Jasnah laying down the law.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2017 21:22

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

MrNemo posted:

It's worth noting on that front that re: the Recreance, it isn't totally clear who is actually breaking oaths. The Stormfather and the Spren clearly fully blame humans for being oathbreakers and the Spren are the ones to suffer for it but the cause of the humans' actions which is learning that they are the invaders and that the Parshendi are the rightful inhabitants of the planet and humans brough Odium predates that. That was information they were not given and in that sense they were misled. Humans speak the oaths but Kaladin makes the point that abandoning the Shardplate and blades was simply the expression of that bond being broken. The Stormfather even explains it, saying that Honour was no longer capable of explaining and encouraging those knights but had gone as mad as the Heralds. So it seems quite possible to me that humans in the Recreance didn't get punished because they weren't the real cause of that breaking of faith. The Spren are pissed about it because it was their relatives and friends who suffered the direct consequences of it.

The Oathpact is also the thing that binds Odium. It makes sense to me that the Oaths are more like oaths of service, and you swear them to Honor vs. Odium, like an old-fashioned bet between God and the Devil. As long as the bet continues (i.e. humans participate in the Oathpact), Odium has to follow the rules. It's literally keeping score of who can keep the faith.

There's a repeated theme of free will being the crucial aspect of humanity. Shards are bound by their natures, and Spren are bound by their natures, and even the Singers are bound by their natures. Humanity are the only ones who can think and act outside the box. The Stormfather didn't say that Honor went mad, just that Honor embodied his Shard too entirely, and became obsessed with rules over compassion and morality. Pretty much the exact same thing that happened to Nale. The Recreance is basically the day that Odium won, and humans told Honor to get bent for being a hypocrite, but a few humans kept to the pact anyway, so Odium has to break them, too.

# ¿ Nov 27, 2017 17:49

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

It's more that Lift doesn't seem to notice/care that it's a world-ending apocalypse and she's making faces while tying demon shoelaces together instead of taking it seriously.

The eating thing isn't actually that stupid, since her boon from Cultivation is that she turns food into Investiture, and so doesn't need Stormlight to power her abilities. It's crazy powerful given the struggles that the other Radiants have with keeping enough Stormlight on hand.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2017 06:45

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Habibi posted:

To each their own when it comes to matters of humor, but I find this such an alien perspective. Shallan isn't witty. She is particularly not witty when she's trying to be witty. At times, it's almost hard to believe that Shallan isn't being intentionally written as an inept comedic try-hard - Sanderson has, after all, written a few legitimately funny / clever / witty characters, so the capacity is there to not paint someone intended to be funny as a pretentiously bludgeoning joke factory - except that who would want to read about, let alone from the POV of, that?

Shallan is absolutely being intentionally written as a try-hard and not as actually funny. I don't know or care if Sanderson is "capable" of writing humor, but he's not accidentally making the characters in his story react with awkward pauses and eyerolls, they think she's as desperate for approval as we do.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2017 07:13

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

NecroMonster posted:

You also need to restore the bond to the same level as when it was broken, using the same exact words that were used for the oaths the first time.

That would have been my guess, and why the spren all think it's impossible. Becoming a Radiant of the Third Ideal with a spren guiding you is hard. Doing all of that without a spren whispering advice in your ear is something none of the other POV characters could have accomplished, and they are all exceptional already.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2017 02:06

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Subvisual Haze posted:

Middle book syndrome is my optimistic perception. Stormlight is planned for 10 books, but it's structured as two parts of 5 books each with a gap in between. So really we're in the awkward middle of the first 5, hopefully setting plots up for satisfying payoffs later.

Reading between the lines Brandon had to shuffle a fair number of characters and plots around, and this book spent an unusually large amount of time in re edits. There's a bit of a cascade from WoR where he needed to put Jasnah on a bus for a while so Shallan could grow on her own. Shallan did grow well, but it resulted in a multi death fakeout at the end of WoR where Brandon really didn't intend one and he seemed apologetic when confronted with that frequent criticism. Now I think he's tweaked the story in response to the death fake out criticism (I imagine either the death of Elkohar or Eshonai were moved up as a result to show that not all deaths are fakeouts) and some pacing feels off as a result. Also the fact he didn't originally plan to off Jasnah is starkly apparent in Oathbringer, the other characters barely react at all to Jasnah returning from the dead beyond Shallan being angry for one chapter. Her whole family thought her dead, there needed to be more emotional fallouts and reactions to that.

Likewise, When Kaladin, Shallan, and co. got caught up in the Kholinar revolution, disappeared, and were presumed dead, nobody batted an eye at them reappearing. Nobody was devastated that Elhokar died. Sure, they reappeared during a battle and didn't have time for tearful reunions, but they were gone for a long time, you'd think characters would have found the time to be as relieved as the reader when everybody was reunited.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2018 19:51

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

ekeog posted:

i'm with you here, i think the "idea" Melishi has combined with the strike on Bo-ado-mishram accidentally lobotomizing an entire race is the big thing we can piece together that the characters really don't understand yet, hence their kind of unconcerned reaction to the news.

I wonder to what extent just finding out the ramifications of that action just directly broke their vows in itself? Like if you assume Windrunners are like generally similar to Kaladin, finding out they were responsible alone might be enough to sever their powers.

And yeah lol the Skybreakers are just like "Well, this action was lawful and necessary, we don't see any problem here."

If we're theorizing the real reasons for the recreance, the Unmade were probably pivotal. Maybe they were "Godspren" like the Stormfather, and they were convinced to betray their own natures, and were corrupted by it. Spren repeatedly tell humans that they don't have free will the same way that humans do - going against their natures is quote unquote impossible. It would be an easier pill to swallow to guess that the Knights Radiant or the Heralds were responsible for creating the Unmade, and that act killed the lesser bonded spren related to them. In that case, the Stormfather could also be one of the Unmade, or the only one who didn't get corrupted. It'd be an interesting twist if the Highstorms are a product of the Stormfather's corruption.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2018 20:29

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Luminaflare posted:

Also in regards to the Unmade, there's WoB stating that they're splinters of Odium.

WoB is a nice behind the scenes, but I imagine that he'd be willing to mislead with them. If spren predate Honor's/Cultivation's/humanity's arrival on Roshar, or the Unmade are a combination effort from multiple Shards, it would still make his WoB true.

Also regarding crem, I imagine it's basically silt, maybe limestone silt. Very fine dirt that builds up over time isn't fantastical magic, it's pretty mundane.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2018 23:03

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

BananaNutkins posted:

It was extremely unbelievable for me. Bridge Four can't be more than a couple hundred people, Right? They would all know each other instantly.

I imagine Bridge Four is literally the named people in the book, so two dozen, generously (if they replaced dead/retired members). It is kind of a dumb plot point to have his jacket used as a disguise.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2018 02:08

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Kaladin used stormlight (crudely) before he spoke his first ideal, like when he killed Shallan's brother and won his shards. The Windrunner squires do, too. It just seems like part of how the Radiants get their power.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2018 18:26

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

I still say that Dalinar is going to reunite the splinters of Honor and become the new Honor. So he'll become the Stormfather instead of summoning him.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2018 18:13

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

So you stick Dalinar on a ship and have an "Infinite Perpendicularity" drive?

Or maybe the Elsecallers shift it to the Cognitive Realm, and use it to create warp drive.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2018 19:19

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Leng posted:

What, not on Team Adonalsium? I wouldn't really want this though, because spren are splinters and spren are cool.

I don't think they're purely splinters, there were Radiants (so also spren) before Honor bit the dust.

If Dalinar unites and conquers the Cosmere, that'd would be neat, I'm just not sure he's the Mary Sue out of all the Mary Sues who's going to do it.

# ¿ Aug 21, 2018 16:25

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

With how much they talk about the safehand, hopefully it's a Chekhov's Gun and it actually matters. The ultra-gender-specific traditions and weird warrior fetishism in Vorin culture that isn't present in the other human cultures in the world, and the lost history of the previous Desolations (and the way the whole story is a proxy war between gods) is foreshadowing there being a reason for it beyond "people maintain meaningless traditions and exaggerate them over time". It being arbitrary also seems a little blasphemous for a fairly religious author if that's where his mind is taking him.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2019 21:07

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Sab669 posted:

That'd be neat if it comes up as an actually important thing, and while I wouldn't put it past Sanderson to do that I would be surprised if safehands end up being significant in some way.

I mentioned this general 'safehand discussion' to my coworker and she just goes " Why do Jewish men wear a yarmulke" which shut me up It very well could just be "people maintain meaningless traditions because they're traditional" as you said. We definitely perpetuate a lot of behaviors that make no logical sense in the real world, so why not mirror our stupid behaviors in the book (as spandexcajun said).

I mean... Jewish dudes can tell you why they wear yarmulkes, it's part of their religious tradition that has meaning, it's not just because. Christians can tell you why they do communion or have the cross as their symbol. It's not "just because" from their perspective. I doubt Sanderson thinks real world religious traditions are stupid.

From a purely analytical perspective, the "traditional" safehand in a big sleeve prevents women from participating in athletic activities and warfare, and makes them dependent on others to do physical labor. And men being illiterate prevents them from participating in scholarly activities. Hopefully there's a why for that cultural crippling of the Vorins, is what I'm saying.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2019 21:42

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

If safehands were just a power play by greedy nobles, and some heavy-handed social commentary, I can accept that. It's not that subtle, it's just a big wasted opportunity. I'm hoping that the consequences of that are actually a part of the story, and not relegated to internal character monologues. The safehand is a matter of vice and virtue to the main characters of the Stormlight Archive, so that actually mattering is good writing, in the sense that following or bucking those virtues would have consequences to the larger struggle of the story (as opposed to petty rivalries and virtue signaling)

Leng posted:

Edit to add: Perhaps how Erikson writes about sex in Malazan would be more along the lines of what you're thinking, but if you didn't like the fact that safehands aren't explained in text, I think you'll hate Malazan, where nothing about the world is explained, ever.

I wish Sanderson could take a cue from Erikson. Not about sex, but about worldbuilding. Safehands are explained in text, IMO, and more of the world should be like that. It'd be more engaging and compact storytelling, leaving more room for plot instead of exposition.

edit: Sex, relationships, and friendship is good when it humanizes the characters. In ensemble stories, it's easy to make everyone into workhorses who only interact in terms of the plot instead of their own internal motivations. Sex scenes and attraction aren't the important part of it, it's making characters relatable, and having characters choose personal motivations over the group ones is a good way of introducing drama without having clear antagonists or idiot plots.

Infinite Karma fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Jan 10, 2019

# ¿ Jan 10, 2019 22:49

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Chernabog posted:

I'm about done with "The First Law" trilogy (and stand-alones) what should I move on to next?
Things that I've heard about but haven't read:

-Malazan series

This is the best fantasy series I've ever read, at least to my tastes. The first book is good, but a little shaky compared to the rest of the series.

It doesn't hold your hand the way a lot of genre fiction does (it reminds me of more traditional fiction that way), which I enjoy as someone who's read other stuff. Kind of the opposite of Sanderson in that way, for better or worse.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2019 19:43

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

I could see the spren bonding and order-specific oaths being more like "rules that spren follow when they grant power" more than "supernaturally-enforced laws of magic."

The relevance being that I could imagine Adolin bonding Mayalaran without actually being a very good Edgedancer, oath-wise, through a loophole of "Mayalaran owes him a solid, and bucks the rules because Adolin earned it."

# ¿ Jan 31, 2019 06:14

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Evil Fluffy posted:

Either way, this series will end before Rothfuss or GRRM publish another book in their main series.

Leaving Sanderson to finish those series after the authors die, which was his plan all along.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2019 02:14

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Torrannor posted:

Jasnah had no PoV chapter so far, right? Next book will have Szeth flashbacks, and the fifth book will have Eshonai flashbacks. So Jasnah will likely join Lift as one of the back five main characters.

Jasnah is a great character, but I don't see her becoming a main POV character. She's too powerful and knowledgeable compared to everyone else who's not a worldhopper (and she kind of is a worldhopper too), and "Jasnah is a cypher" is basically her main character trait. It makes the chapters featuring her the best in the books, but showing how the sausage is made in her own POV would ruin it.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2019 16:34

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

If the other characters treated Lift like the bizarre hyperactive twee anime she is, it wouldn't be so bad, but for some reason they all forget their fantasy intrigues and political plotting and dry kayfabe and take her seriously. It was scandalous when Darkeyed characters were allowed to be in the same room as the high-cast Lighteyed characters... flexible or easygoing aren't words I'd use to describe any of the Alethi characters. At least have them react to her weirdness, or awkwardly ignore it. Not wordlessly accept it.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2019 00:49

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

socialsecurity posted:

What Alethi did she even interact with other then Dalinar? At this point shes a Radiant are her eyes even dark anymore?

I don't literally mean it's about eye color. The whole first book was about a bunch of low caste poors being sentenced to death slavery on Bridge Crews for inconveniencing higher status lords, or disrespecting them. These lords (who are most of the main characters of every nation) take traditions and respect really seriously. Most of them live for throwing their weight around and letting people know who has the power.

But suddenly Lift shows up, and huff and puff and they roll their eyes, but just let it go.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2019 05:56

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Subvisual Haze posted:

Turns out Vin and Jasnah have great tits.

Eshonai and Venli or you're no true fan

# ¿ Apr 24, 2019 17:58

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Didn't someone get gifted (dead) shards and become a lighteyes, and then have his eyes turn dark again when he gave away the blade? Or did I make that up?

# ¿ May 6, 2019 01:30

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Leng posted:

That was OB Moash. And it did happen the way you described.

I thought it was him but wasn't sure, since he's had such a rollercoaster ride.

# ¿ May 6, 2019 02:49

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

eke out posted:

i like that she's like viewed by others as this ultra-competent super-put-together genius and when we get POV chapters, we see that she's really unsure of herself and feeling the imposter syndrome hard, which is extremely relatable

To be fair to her, she's unsure of things like "how do I kill a god and stop it's immoral minions and survive the process," and everyone else is still on "how do I turn on this TV?"

# ¿ Jun 21, 2019 20:35

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

Wasn't there an knife that was described as probably-aluminum-but-the-locals-don't-know-the-word in Stormlight? Didn't Moash stab Tanavast with it and it did something bad to his investiture/immortality because of the properties of aluminum?

# ¿ Sep 2, 2019 18:03

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 18:02

Infinite Karma: Oct 23, 2004; Good as dead

eke out posted:

that knife was used on Jezrien and described as bright gold/yellowish-white, leading to the speculation that it's probably odium's godmetal (given his gold color theme).

there's also a big sapphire in it which is the specific gemstone that corresponds to Jezrien's order, and the gem glows. so it's probably combination of mysterious-probably-godmetal and the gem

i think within the rules as described so far, aluminum would explicitly not work ever to do something like this, since it's entirely inert and pretty much magical lead.

Yeah, I was thinking of Nightblood, which has an Aluminum scabbard, which seems to block its magic. My point was that some materials seem to have inherent magic-interacting properties regardless of what kind of world or magic they're interacting with.

# ¿ Sep 2, 2019 19:02

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